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Greek city of
Abydos
in
Troas
Bronze 11mm (1.20 grams) Struck circa 320-200 B.C.
Reference: SNG Copenhagen 33-5 var.; SNG von Aulock 1445 var.
Laureate head of Apollo right.
ABY, Eagle standing right with closed wings.
Abydos was a Milesian colony on the shores of the
Hellespont, opposite Sestos.
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Authenticity.
The Troad or Troas is the historical name of the
Biga
peninsula (modern
Turkish: Biga Yarımadası,
Greek
: Τρωάς)
in the northwestern part of
Anatolia
,
Turkey
. This region now is part of the
Çanakkale
province
of
Turkey
. Bounded by the
Dardanelles
to the northwest, by the
Aegean Sea
to the west and separated from the
rest of Anatolia by the
massif
that forms
Mount Ida
, the Troad is drained by two main
rivers
, the
Scamander
(Karamenderes)
and the Simois
, which join at the area containing the
ruins
of
Troy. Grenikos, Kebren, Simoeis, Rhesos, Rhodios, Heptaporos and
Aisepos were seven rivers of the Troad and the names of the river gods that
inhabited each river.
Part of the walls of Troy
History
The Troad gets its name from the
Hittites
‘ name for the region, Taruisa.
This identification was first put forth by
Emil Forrer
, but largely disputed by most
Hittite experts until 1983 when Houwink ten Cate showed that two fragments were
from the same original
cuneiform
tablet and in his discussion of the
restored letter showed that Taruisa and
Wilusa
(Troy) were correctly placed in
northwestern Anatolia. According to
Trevor Bryce
, Hittite texts indicate a number
of
Ahhiyawan
raids on Wilusa during the 13th
century BC, which may have resulted with the overthrow of king
Walmu
.
Bryce also reports that archeological surveys conducted by John Bintliff in
the 1970s show that a powerful kingdom that held sway over northwestern Anatolia
was based at Wilusa (Troy).
The kings of
Pergamum
(now
Bergama
) later ceded the territory of the Troad
to the
Roman Republic
. Under the
Empire
, the territory of the Troad became part
of the
province of Asia
; under the later
Byzantine Empire
, it was included in the
thema
of the Aegean Islands. Following its
conquest by the
Ottoman Empire
, the Troad formed part of the
sanjak
of
Biga
.
In the New Testament
Paul
visited Troas. He also refers to Troas
when he asks his fellow worker
Timothy
out of
Ephesus
, to get his coat there.[3]
This was a journey of about 500 kilometres (310 mi). Paul was accompanied by
Luke
.
In
Greek
and
Roman mythology
,
Apollo,
is one of the most important and diverse of the
Olympian deities
. The ideal of the
kouros
(a beardless youth), Apollo has been
variously recognized as a god of light and the sun; truth and prophecy;
archery
; medicine and healing; music, poetry,
and the arts; and more. Apollo is the son of
Zeus and Leto
, and has a
twin
sister, the chaste huntress
Artemis
. Apollo is known in Greek-influenced
Etruscan mythology
as Apulu. Apollo was
worshiped in both
ancient Greek
and
Roman religion
, as well as in the modern
Greco
–Roman
Neopaganism
.
As the patron of Delphi
(Pythian Apollo), Apollo was an
oracular
god — the prophetic deity of the
Delphic Oracle
. Medicine and healing were
associated with Apollo, whether through the god himself or mediated through his
son Asclepius
, yet Apollo was also seen as a god
who could bring ill-health and deadly
plague
as well as one who had the ability to
cure. Amongst the god’s custodial charges, Apollo became associated with
dominion over
colonists
, and as the patron defender of herds
and flocks. As the leader of the
Muses (Apollon Musagetes) and director of their choir, Apollo
functioned as the patron god of music and
poetry
.
Hermes
created the
lyre for him, and the instrument became a common
attribute
of Apollo. Hymns sung to Apollo were
called paeans
.
In Hellenistic times, especially during the third century BCE, as Apollo
Helios he became identified among Greeks with
Helios
,
god of the sun
, and his sister Artemis
similarly equated with
Selene
,
goddess of the moon
. In Latin texts, on the
other hand, Joseph Fontenrose declared himself unable to find any conflation of
Apollo with
Sol
among the
Augustan poets
of the first century, not even
in the conjurations of
Aeneas
and
Latinus
in
Aeneid
XII (161–215). Apollo and Helios/Sol
remained separate beings in literary and mythological texts until the third
century CE.
Abydos (Greek: Άβυδος), an ancient city of
Mysia
, in
Asia Minor
, situated at Nara Burnu or
Nagara Point
on the best harbor on the Asiatic shore of the
Hellespont
.
Across Abydos lies
Sestus
on the European side marking the shortest point in the
Dardanelles
, scarcely a mile broad. The strategic site has been a prohibited
zone in the twentieth century.
Hero and Leander
‘s story was been near Abydos.
Abydos was first mentioned in the catalogue of Trojan allies (Iliad
ii.836). It probably was a
Thracian
town,
as Strabo
has
it, but was afterwards colonized by
Milesians
,
with the consent of
Gyges, king of Lydia
, around 700 BC. It was occupied by the Persians in
514 BC
, and Darius
burnt it in
512
. Here
Xerxes
built two bridges of boats and crossed the strait in
480 BC
when he
invaded Greece
.
Abydos thereafter became a member of the
Delian League
, until it revolted from Athenian rule in
411 BC
.[2]
It allied itself to
History of Sparta
, until
394 BC
; King
Agesilaus
of Sparta crossed here while returning to Greece. Abydos then passed under
Achaemenid
rule, until
334 BC
.
Alexander the Great
threw a spear to Abydos while crossing the strait and
claimed Asia as his own.
Abydos is celebrated for the vigorous resistance it made against
Philip V of Macedon
in
200 BC
,[3]
and is famed in myth as the home of
Leander
. It minted coins from the early fifth century BC to the mid-third
century AD.
The town remained until late Byzantine times an important toll and customs
station of the Hellespont, its importance thereafter being transferred to the
Dardanelles
, after the building of the “Old Castles” by Sultan
Mehmet II
(c. 1456).
Abydos and the Hellespont
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